Why I longed to visit Bombay from my childhood?

The political happening of a country can only make decisions on the development of that country. But the financial capital of a country helps to improve its economy. Some countries have their political and financial capital as one. In India, Mumbai formerly known as Bombay is the financial capital, whereas New Delhi is the political capital.

We all know Mumbai is a metropolitan city, one of the important cities in Asia. It has the busiest airport in India next to Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai is the headquarters of Central Railways.
But these things never attracted me to visit the “City of Seven Islands“.
What made the big impact on my mind about Mumbai are:-

1) Since my father was working in petroleum products manufacturing plant out of India, he will be at home for one month and will go back to work the next month. In my third grade of primary schooling, I came to know about Bombay High. “Bombay High” is an offshore oilfield situated the coast of Mumbai, India. I showed him and said, see Pa there is petroleum power plant inside India itself. Get a job here and stay with us.
I wondered does India produce petroleum.

2) From childhood, my father initiated me to read the ingredients, verify the expiry date, check the MRP, and to know about the product before I buy. Most of the products had their ‘headquarters’ in Bombay. Now I can see other metropolitan cities providing headquarters to many companies and two non-metro cities Gurgaon and Noida.
I imagined myself that Mumbai is a big city that’s why all companies have their HQ there!

3)As my father was working in the Middle East, he used to travel in flight. He will board from Trivandrum Airport because it was nearer to our hometown at that time. Most of the flight he used to travel will have a touchdown in Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA). He said it is a big airport with much people travelling to the Middle East, South East Asia mainly. As he went to Bombay for an interview he told me about the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station too. He said there will always be much crowd waiting to catch the local electric train connecting to the Mumbai suburban area.
I wondered, why they kept the same name to Airport and Railway Station?

4) When I was entering higher secondary school. I witnessed the terrible 26/11 Mumbai terror attack which shook the whole world. Before this, I have heard about 1993 Bombay series bomb attack and have seen 9/11 attack in the news when I was a small boy. After this attack, I was looking for live footages, news channels when I was in the home and was discussing that in school. I read a lot of articles in net. Who has planned this inhuman act? Why are they killing innocent people? What is their motive? Then I came to know that the attack’s main motive is to crash down India’s economy. That’s why they choose Mumbai, that too targeting the main Mumbai City.
I questioned myself is this the reason they always attack Mumbai?

5) My father used to buy Auto car and Dalal Street Magazine. I used to read Auto car regularly. When asked him what is this another magazine about? He said it’s a trade analysis magazine. Dalal Street in Mumbai is the street where Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is situated. Then I got an eager to know what is the stock market? Human beings are traders from ancient time. Now with the improvement of technology, trading have started to happen online, helping people all over the world to access the market just by using an internet connection. BSE is Asia’s first stock exchange and India’s first, recognised by the Indian Government.
Waiting for the day to buy stocks in BSE.

6) The final and the foremost important thing I wanted to visit Mumbai is to witness the Pune-Mumbai Express Highway. Being an automobile freak I love driving. My first highway ride was in NH-7, now renamed as NH-44. I have admired after knowing about the Pune-Mumbai Express Highway, which is the 1st of its kind in India to have six-lane concrete, high-speed, access controlled tolled expressway. This expressway has 5 tunnels, built by the ‘Konkan Railways‘, which is a subsidiary division of our “Indian Railways“.
I can’t wait to drive in this tremendous expressway very soon!

Since I had a lot of questions from my childhood and a lot more imaginations about Mumbai, it is the only city I longed to visit from my childhood.
As Bombay and Mumbai both have 6 letters. These are my 6 reasons to visit our India’s financial capital.